Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Verbena hybrida cultivar Comiverd.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Verbena plant, botanically known as Verbena hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Comiverdxe2x80x99.
The new Verbena is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Bene-Zion and Kfar-Hanagid, Israel. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new Verbena cultivars with double flowers and attractive flower coloration.
The new Verbena originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in February, 2001 of a proprietary selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number VA-23, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number VB-3, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Comiverd was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant from within the progeny from this cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Kfar-Hanagid, Israel in March, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Kfar-Hanagid, Israel, since April, 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Verbena are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Comiverdxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Comiverdxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Compact, mounded and cascading plant habit.
2. Freely branching habit; dense and bushy growth habit.
3. Dark green-colored leaves.
4. Double flowers with dark red-colored petals and petaloids.
Plants of the new Verbena are most similar to the parent selections. Plants of the new Verbena differ primarily from plants of the parent selections and cultivars known to the Inventor in flower form as plants of the parent selections and cultivars known to the Inventor have single flowers.